My Garden

Hello everyone! This weekend has been beautiful outside! I hope everyone is outside enjoying the weather and staying active :) We worked out in the yard on Saturday all afternoon raking up dead leaves and dead plants and we made my garden! Gardening is a great way to save money on produce, saves you trips to the store, you know where your food is coming from and how it is maintained, and it is super fresh and nothing beats the taste! I am hoping my garden produces a lot this year :)

My husband had already turned over the dirt in about a 4 foot wide, 8 foot deep section of the yard. He monitored where the sun hits during the day, and decided to bring it a few feet away from the fence so it is getting full sun at least the second half of the day. We broke up that dirt, lined the garden with bricks, then added 2 bags of soil and 1/2 a big bag of peat moss and spread it all out.

I had started some broccoli seedlings indoors a couple of weeks back, but since the weather wasn't getting warm enough, we weren't able to transplant them outside fast enough. However, I started some bell pepper seedlings at the same time and they take a little bit longer to come up, so I was able to transplant them into the garden!

I used this indoor greenhouse kit I bought from amazon that comes with peat moss pellets, I just followed the instructions on the package for planting and watering. I only watered when the soil turned lighter brown, which was only a few times. You don't want to drown the seeds. However, the instructions told me to open up the top of the greenhouse when the seedlings reached a certain height. So, I did that, and then two seconds later my cat Lily ate one of the broccoli sprouts, so the top went back on. We bought them some more organic cat grass for her to eat instead (because we are crazy cat people). Anyway, the greenhouse works great! Everything sprouted without any issues!

I found an idea on Pinterest for using wine corks and sticks to mark your plants. I took bamboo sticks I had in my kitchen for making kabobs and stuck them in the wine corks (I have tons of them saved up). I wrote on the wine corks with permanent marker. These sticks easily went into the ground, and are long so they should stay put.

We planted peppers, beans, green onion, okra, lettuce, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots! I bought organic seeds from Ferry Morse on Amazon. I followed the instructions on the back for determining how far apart to plant them, and most said April was a good time of year for my region.

I also bought some organic red cabbage seeds from Home Depot I will probably be planting. I also planted beefsteak tomatoes in my indoor kit I will transplant to the garden when they are ready! I will also be planting some herbs, but I think I'm going to put them in a planter or some separate pots. Herbs tend to take over, so I think it will be better to keep them contained, but I will update you all on that as well!

For watering we are using a soaker hose.  This type of hose only allows the water to come out of little holes all over the hose (doesn't come out the end).  It uses a great deal less water - about 70% less - this way and you won't worry about drowning your seeds!  My husband John just winds it all around whatever he wants to water and leaves it on for an hour or so.

This is our first year in our house, so having a garden is a first for us! I will update you on the progress of each of my plants and let you know how it goes! This is a learning experience for me as well so if you have any tips, feel free to share!